Target may be in trouble, and if
they are you may be too. On Tuesday October, 2 2007
a Judge with the US District
for the Northern District of California approved Class
action status in a case brought against them in part
by the National Federation for the Blind(NFB).
The nature of the case relates to the current technology
and the inability for screen readers to interpret
the content of some websites. In the case of Target,
they
use a significant amount of technology to produce
their site. The graphic design helps to make the
site quite
appealing to their visually sighted consumers but
makes it nearly impossible to browser for site
visitors who
use screen readers. That is where the trouble begins.
Creating an appealing site is marketing 101, but
many web marketers fail to think about the entire
spectrum
of visitor needs. The NFB argues that this lack of
equal access to the content on their site, is a
violation of
civil rights.
Marc Maurer, who is president of the NFB said in a
statement that "All e-commerce business should
take note of this decision and immediately take steps
to open their doors to the blind". If you are
an internet merchant you should take notice, not so
much because of the threat of litigation but rather
for the purpose of making your site available to a
wider vistor base and SEO-wise, understanding how the
search engines read your content. Much like screen
readers, the search engines need to be able to read
your content
in order to calculate your word usable
and place your pages in the "appropriate" ranking.
In the Target case, their website does not
permit screen readers to view the site, almost
at all.
Below is a
screen capture from Google's cached view which
shows Targets home page. The first portion
of the page informs
us that the page information was retrieved
on October 7, 2007, and as you can see below
the
description
and disclaimer there is nothing, not a single
word of content.
The one thing that Google can pull from this
page… Google
can pull the title from the page: "Welcome to
Target". Not much of a shopping experience
for the blind, wouldn't you agree?
A simple search at Google for the keyword "Target" normally
displays only two pages from Target's website;
the home page of the site, and their career
page. (Will
they be hiring a SEO or accessibility consultant
soon?) The first page of the site most likely
ranks in this position because of the number
of incoming
links attributed to it (think of it as an
acceptable method of Googlebombing). While
the second
page careers most likely ranks because of
the content
of the page.
As you see in the in the cached content image
below Google has been able to capture a significant
amount
of information from the page.
Target, as a keyword, has been referenced in
the title, and nearly a dozen times on
the page, both
in larger fonts such as H1 tags, and link
tags. This page ranks second in a large part
because
of the
page content. The number of incoming links
is a fraction of those that are directed at
the
main
page, yet
it beats out all of the other pages using
the keyword target on their page.
This is an excellent example of the need
to have strong content on your pages. The
search engines
seek the content that is most appealing
to their palate, and also take into consideration
the
number of incoming links from pages with
associated content.
For this to be most effective, and to ensure
that your content appears in the search
results you
need to ensure that the pages of your site
are friendly
to the engines, and to your customers.
By having the strong navigation, and the
well optimized
page content you will be able to satisfy
both the engines,
and the portion of your customer base that
has a visual handicap.
Time will tell the out come of this case,
however ensuring that your sites content
is friendly
to the search engines can have a direct
impact on
the bottom
line. All of your visitors will have a
better experience, be able to read, and
navigate your
site with less
trouble, and hopefully you will be able
to transition your visitors to converted
customers.
As an aside… just before
publishing this article, it appears that
Target has already
begun the process of updating their site
and adding text content to their pages.
Will this
be enough?
Would their current efforts be in compliance
with what the NFB is seeking or should
the text exactly
match the page's graphical content?:
In the past, the search engine reps have
stated that flash based content and
the equivalent normal
text
should be the same. As we reported in 2006,
there is also the issue of stuffing keywords
behind
the scenes rather than just re-presenting
the same
text that appears on page, in graphics,
etc. While Target
probably won't get in trouble with the
engines if the text is not exactly the
same, this doesn't
mean
that you shouldn't strive to be on the
up and up in case an engine considers your
site
to be trying
to keyword stuff.
All of the websites that Creative Web
Designing makes meet the standards for screen reader
programs. If Creative Web Designing did not build your
website and you would like for us to look it over to
make sure that it meets the legal standards, then please
contact us right away.
